Cody Futia balances lacrosse, school and business

Guilderland senior lacrosse player Cody Futia has a lot on his plate these days.

Futia anchors a young Dutchmen defensive unit while completing his final months of his high school studies and preparing to play for a select American team going to England this summer for an international tournament.

Oh, and he's a budding entrepreneur. With his father's help, Futia started Assault Sports Apparel a company inspired by his love of mixed martial arts.

I'm a fan of MMA and UFC (Ultimate Fighting), and I liked the Tapout T-shirts. So I wanted to try to do something like that," said Futia.

Futia's product line has attitude literally written all over it. Each T-shirt, hooded sweatshirt and bumper sticker has a saying like, "Attitude: The difference between being good and being great!"

And Futia hasn't been shy about promoting his product line. He wears his shirts to school, which attracts the attention of his fellow students and teachers.

"People do ask me where I get my T-shirts, and when I tell them it's my shirt, they don't believe me," said Futia. "So, I have to pull out a business card or go to the nearest computer and show them the Web site."

Getting the product to the masses is a little more difficult for Futia. He only has a limited supply at the moment since the company has only been active for several months.

"We're just getting the word out now," said Futia. "We haven't really had a lot of sales, yet."

Not that Futia can solely focus on his company these days. He's trying to help Guilderland repeat as Section II Class A lacrosse champions while imparting his knowledge of the sport to a group of sophomore defensemen.

"He's worked his tail off to be the best player he can be lacrosse-wise, and he's got his future on his mind with his company," said Guilderland coach Sean McConaghy.